LAUNCHES

Arianespace
to launch CD Radio satellites

The U.S. company CD Radio
Inc. and the European launch provider Arianespace signed a launch
services contract for two CD Radio satellites in Washington, D.C.
today. The two spacecraft will be launched from the European
Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (South America) in 1999.

Launch services for the two
CD Radio satellites will be partially financed through a project
finance loan provided by Arianespace Finance. This marks the first
use of the supplementary service recently set up by Arianespace,
which is primarily intended for new operators such as CD Radio.

The CD Radio satellites,
which are being built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto,
California, will offer CD-quality radio programming to customers
across the United States. They will be deployed at 80 degrees W and
110 degrees W, respectively.

CD Radio a publicly-traded
company based in Washington, D.C., is the winning bidder for one of
two FCC national satellite radio broadcast licenses. The company is
building a 50 channel satellite-to-car radio service for the
broadcast of music and other programming to motorists throughout the
United States. "These launches will herald a new era for radio
in America," said CD Radio Chairman and CEO, David Margolese.

Including the CD Radio
satellites, Arianespace now has 46 satellites on order to be
launched. The next launch, Flight 98, is now scheduled for August 7.
An Ariane 44P will be used to place PAS-6 into orbit.

SATELLITES

Garuda
almost ready ;-)

Nothing happens, really.
Maybe that's why P.T. Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS) thought it
would be a nice occasion to issue a press release on the "program
status of the company's ACeS system."

The project maybe better
known for its first satellite, Garuda, which will be manufactured by
Lockheed Martin. "It is planned that all of the satellite and
ground segment critical design reviews will be completed by August
1997 and the program will be fully transitioned into the
qualification and production phase of the program.

"The [Russian] Proton
D1-e launch vehicle from Lockheed Khrunichev Enterprises has
completed the preliminary design phase, after successfully
incorporating the ACeS mission unique design and analysis
requirements. All system integration, hardware interfaces and
compatibility studies are complete and the system level verification
tests have begun and will continue into 1998.

"The satellite is
currently scheduled for a first quarter, 1999 launch and the ACeS
system turn-key delivery is planned for the second quarter, 1999.
These current dates reflect a four month slip on the original
anticipated contract delivery date due to minor delays in refining
elements of the satellite payload equipment, specifically the
payload signal processor.

"P.T. ACeS is owned by
three equal shareholders -- P.T. Pasifik Satelit Nusantara
(PSN)(Nasdaq: PSNRY), the Philippines Long Distance Telephone
Company (PLDT), and Jasmine International Overseas Company Limited
of Thailand. PSN is also the primary sponsor of ACeS.

"The ACeS system is a
satellite-based, hand-held digital mobile telecommunications system
intended to provide competitively priced telephone and data services
to subscribers in the Asia Pacific region.

Thai spy
again

Long-time readers of this,
er... publication will be aware of Thailand's efforts to set up a
spy satellite system.

Spy satellites -- what a
nasty word. Let's call 'em observation satellites, shall we? Of
course, you may as well use those gadgets to forecast natural
disasters or to help form land development policies. Anyway, the
Thai government went through some troubles in the process of
planning the system.

For a start, a Canadian
spacecraft will be purchased. Beginning in 2002, Thailand wants to
launch its own satellites. They will be designed and developed in
Japan by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and NEC Corp

A Mitsubishi Electric
spokesman declined to disclose the terms of the contract with the
Thai government but admitted that one satellite is estimated to cost
about ¥10 billion. He added that the two companies will also
develop technology on analysing observation data.

Landsat
turns 25

If there were a competition
for the best lead of a press release, this one would be the winner:
"For thousands of years, mankind gazed up toward the skies.
Twenty five years ago, the skies looked back."

On July 23, 1972, NASA
launched ERTS 1, the world's first civilian Earth resources
satellite. The launch of ERTS 1 -- later renamed Landsat 1 --
created what would become the world's largest and richest collection
of imagery and geographic information about the Earth's surface.
Landsat inspired the development of a host of new satellites that
would regularly monitor changes to the Earth's land, water and
atmospheric conditions.

Since it began, the Landsat
program has had numerous accomplishments. For example, Landsat 5,
launched by NASA in 1984, had a design life of just five years.
However, in April 1997, the satellite was announced to have
completed its 70,000th orbit of the Earth and is still performing
its primary mission today.

Landsat also inspired the
revolutionary commercialization of high- resolution satellite
imaging in 1994, when the U.S. Department of Commerce enabled the
private sector to develop and exploit satellite systems capable of
collecting imagery that reveals Earth objects as small as one meter
in diameter.

The idea of a civilian Earth
resources satellite was originally conceived in the U.S. Department
of the Interior in the mid-1960s. The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) quickly embarked on the initiative to build
and launch the world's first Earth monitoring satellite, and
launched ERTS 1 in 1972. Since then, five additional Landsat
satellites have been launched, each offering improved capabilities.

Several government and
private organizations have shared in the management of Landsat. In
January 1983, operations of the Landsat system were transferred to
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 1985,
the Landsat system was commercialized with a partnership between
Hughes and RCA, a partnership that led to the development of a
private company named the Earth Observation Satellite Company
(EOSAT). EOSAT ultimately was acquired by Space Imaging, Inc. in
November 1996.

Many organizations that are
regular users of this imagery look forward to the availability of
new, one-meter resolution satellite imagery which, for many
applications, will be complementary to the existing Landsat
products. This additional commercial capability is being spearheaded
by Space Imaging EOSAT's IKONOS satellites, the first of which is
scheduled to launch in December of this year.

LAW
& ORDER

Dish ban
in the USA?

Not really. The U.S. Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) ruled against a Kansas town's
regulation that restricted the installation of satellite dishes. It
was the first such order issued under the new telecommunications
law.

The FCC now has authority to
pre-empt local restrictions that make it hard for consumers to
install and use small satellite dishes (except when local rules are
justified by safety or historic preservation considerations.) In
this case, local regulation in Meade, Kansas, made it difficult for
consumers to install satellite dishes or other antennas. It required
an antenna user not only to obtain a US$5 permit but also to win
city approval of the antenna's placement. The measure included
"property setback regulations" which the FCC said were not
defined, and a heavy fine for violators: US$500 per day.

DIGITAL

Digital
terrestrial TV in Australia

Digital terrestrial
television broadcasting (DTTB) should be introduced into Australia
as soon as possible, according to the Australian Broadcasting
Authority (ABA.)

ABA chairman Peter Webb said
in a statement that "The present analogue system will not meet
the expectations and needs of viewers in the next century while
cable and satellite television systems that use digital transmission
are restricted by the lack of digital receivers in the home."
[That seems to imply that decoders for digital terrestrial TV can be
bought on every street corner in Australia.]

However, "DTTB will
provide the foundations for television of the 21st century,"
knows Webb. And even though high-definition television (HDTV) is as
dead as ad doornail in most parts of the world, he went on to
explain that DTTB could deliver the (HDTV) pictures which were
needed for those trendy monster-screen home theatre-style receivers.
[Well, just go ahead and buy one if your living room is still to
spacious and you have too much money anyway.] "HDTV makes an
enormous difference to the viewing experience for both film and live
productions such as telecasts of major sporting events," Webb
said. [Oh yeah... imagine all those digital artefacts in high
resolution!]

"Receiver manufacturers
and broadcasters need clear direction on the need for HDTV
capabilities to be provided in receivers," Mr Webb said. "This
direction has been set in the USA and I am pleased to see recent
initiatives in Europe to incorporate HDTV capabilities into the
systems being developed there."

[Recent? Geez! HDTV has been
subsidised by the European Union for centuries. Lots of production
companies and broadcasters cashed in the money, but to my knowledge
there is not a single real HDTV channel available in Europe.]

Alphastar
on the move

The digital DTH service
AlphaStar, which is due to appear in bankruptcy court next Friday,
notified U.S. dealers and subscribers that it will move to Loral
SkyNet's Telstar 5 satellite next Monday.

AlphaStar said its signals on
Telstar 4 will cease at 2:15 a.m. Eastern Time on July 28 except for
a small number of channels. Alphastar service on Telstar 5 will be
available after 2 p.m. Eastern Time on that same day. This is, of
course, an interesting development as Loral said it hadn't received
payments from Alphastar, currently broadcast on TELSTAR 402R, since
March.

Loral recently filed motion
seeking to force Alphastar to "accept or reject" leases
for transponders onboard the new TELSTAR 5 bird by August 1.
Alphastar intended to use the bird for a 95-channel service.
Alphastar's submissions to court indicated it would not do so.

It's unclear whether that
will make the service more popular. "To access AlphaStar's
Telstar 5 services it will be necessary to change the direction and
angle of your dish antenna," AlphaStar told its subscribers,
pointing out that dish repositioning is "the responsibility of
each subscriber. Neither Alphastar U.S. nor Alphastar Canada shall
be responsible for any costs, claims or losses incurred by a
subscriber by reason of such relocating and/or re-aiming."

Meanwhile, observers still
speculate whether the service and its assets will be sold. Possible
buyers include Samsung Electronics in conjunction with
still-to-be-found partners as well as former Tee-Comm executives.
Other reports suggest uplink facilities and other operations in the
United States and Canada could be sold separately to the highest
bidders

BUSINESS

Microsoft
invests in Real Audio

In the latest issue of the
UK's Internet magazine, Rob Glaser, chairman and chief executive of
Progressive Networks, was asked whether his company was a target for
Microsoft to acquire. He didn't really answer the question -- now we
know why.

Not only has Glaser worked
for Microsoft over a period of ten years. He also probably knew that
Microsoft Corp. would made a financial investment in the inventors
of RealAudio, giving it a 10-percent non-voting stake in the
company. It has happened now; and even though Microsoft won't be
able to control the company, the investment is probably enough to
keep them informed about what's cooking at Progressive Networks.

The two companies pledged to
work together to develop new versions of Progressive's RealAudio and
RealVideo formats and make them the industry standard. The agreement
calls for Microsoft to integrate the streaming programs into the
software giant's Internet Explorer browser and Site Server products.
Interestingly, Microsoft also took a minority stake in VDOnet Inc.,
a streaming video competitor, last year.

Glaser in Internet magazine:
"We have a better than average understanding of Microsoft's
Maslovian hierarchy."

CHANNELS

CFI: No
porn intended

Was it a hard-core movie or
just an X-rated film that was shown by the state-financed French
channel CFI? It doesn't matter -- the channel got kicked off from
Arabsat as reported yesterday.

It was a mistake anyway, CFI
said today in a statement and apologised for the technical error.
"We deeply regret this unacceptable incident and we share in
the high feelings prompted in Saudi Arabia and more widely in the
Arab world," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt
told a daily press briefing.

CFI said the mistake took
place at France Telecom's uplink where French television programs
are distributed to satellites across the world -- among them
Arabsat, which [as the name implies] broadcasts throughout Arab
countries.

Instead of sending a
scheduled feature for children, France Telecom aired a pornographic
film from a private French station destined for clients in the
Pacific. [Remember what I told you about bored uplink technicians
and their private pleasures yesterday.]

Officials said French
diplomats in Saudi Arabia had tried to smooth over what could be a
disaster for France's efforts to reach audiences in the Arab world,
where most Western programs are American-made. [No sex there, just
healthy, gratuitous violence.]

Coca
Cola kills kids

Children are absolutely
unaffected by what they watch on the tube. At least, that's what the
TV industry claims. Wrong! They copy even TV commercials -- with
lethal consequences.

Coca Cola India, a
fully-owned unit of Coca-Cola Co, withdrew a TV commercial featuring
bungee jumping after a 10 year-old child died in Calcutta when aping
the commercial. Actually, it was the second death of a minor trying
to re-enact the commercial. A child died in Bombay in April 1996,
when he jumped off a 10-storey building trying to reach a beverage
truck at the bottom of the structure -- just as in the commercial --
except for the rope.

The commercial featured a
model bungee jumping off a cliff to grab a bottle of a local cola
brand owned by Coca-Cola off a delivery truck at the base of the
cliff.

If commercials can kill your
children, just imagine what regular TV programming
[y'know, those tiny bits between all those commercials] can do to
them.

RUPERTWATCH

by Dr Sarmaz

Rupert
v/s India

Rupert Murdoch is taking the
Indian government to court over its ban of DTH reception.

News Television filed its
case in India's Supreme Court, according to company lawyer Kapil
Sibal. Mr Murdoch's News Television India Ltd. had been expecting
the government to license direct-to-home satellite broadcasts, but
instead, the ban was announced last week. Sibal said the ban
violates the right to information guaranteed by the Indian
Constitution.

As reported, all individual
satellite reception above 4,800 MHz has been banned. The regulation
makes it unlawful to receive direct-to-home services such as that
planned by Mr Murdoch. While the government gave no reason for the
ban, officials have said privately they are concerned broadcasters
could directly transmit programming considered "anti-India."

Rupert
conquers N.Y.

According to the Wall Street
Journal, Warner Inc. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. have reached a
tentative settlement of their dispute over carriage of News Corp.'s
Fox News on Time Warner's New York City cable systems.

It's no surprise that the
companies will drop their various lawsuits under the agreement. The
city reportedly has agreed to turn over one of its government
channels to Time Warner, which will use it to put on Fox News. Mr
Murdoch's news channel will reportedly also be carried by other Time
Warner systems throughout the country.

In essence, Time Warner is
the loser as most of News Corp.'s claims have already been dismissed
by a federal judge. On the other hand, the agreement is undoubtedly
related to Mr Murdoch's digital deal with PrimeStar, a DTH service
controlled by cable companies, among them Time Warner. It was
expected that they in turn for selling valuable assets to PrimeStar,
News Corp. for non-voting stock would gain access to more cable
networks across the USA.